#BlackLivesMatter Shows There Are Problems in American Life That Can’t Be Blamed on the Rich
Democratic presidential candidates should take heed. They need to come up with a way to speak to this issue. Otherwise, in an Obama-less election, part of the Obama coalition may not be motivated to show up.
Obviously, you can be for criminal justice reform and also for raising taxes on the rich or whatever else.
But what you can’t plausibly do is cram the issue of structural racism in the criminal justice system into a frame that’s about the perfidy of economic elites. Prosecutors, cops, and correctional officers aren’t economic elites, they’re hard-working middle-class Americans who often enjoy the labor union protections and collective bargaining rights that populists want to stand up for.
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